The Repo Man
Anyone with a pulse will have noticed the interesting couple of weeks that Wall Street has had. While the exact impacts the implosion of the financial sector will have on Sun's business remain to be seen, I'd be surprised if it were a net positive.
Sun seems to have fairly deep penetration in the financial sector (or in the new nomenclature, is "exposed to" the financial sector). It's possible that the strength of Sun customers acquiring others will outweigh the demise of Sun customers being acquired, though it seems a bit unlikely. (In all fairness, I'd be surprised if the troubles on Wall Street are a net positive for any company. Financial turmoil is a net negative for market perceptions overall, which will inevitably dial down IT spending.)
What I fear most however is the upcoming messaging around the financial markets when we hold our next analyst/earnings call. As noted above, it will clearly have an impact on earnings and analysts will likely want to understand the impact. But I don't want to hear our leaders using the financial markets as an excuse. I don't want to hear Sun made out to be a victim of the market.
If the financial crash has a significant negative impact to our business, that's our fault as much as the fault of the market. It means that we've failed to adequately diversify across industries. It means that we've failed to learn from the impact of our "telecom exposure" following the first dotcom crash. We're not victims of the market, we're victims of our own complacency. (Yes, financial services firms are huge users of IT and it's reasonable to have a significant penetration there. Yes, new customer acquisition and market diversification is being addressed now, but I wish we'd done it years ago.)
So what to talk about instead of victimization?
Special thanks to David Harris, head of Sun's Workplace Environment organization, for reminding me that the Repo Man is having a banner year. While the line of work may be socially unfortunate, the reality is that it is possible to thrive in a down economy - you just have to find the right product or service to offer and the right customer to offer it to.
When Jonathan first took over as President, he was constantly talking about everything as a competitive weapon. He's backed off that messaging in the last couple of years, but I'd like to see him return to it. While there were likely some who found it disingenuous, I personally found it empowering. It changed my mindset and I started thinking about how the work I was doing would help the company, started sending ideas to leaders who could take action to change the company's posture, started shedding some of the complacency. (I saw the same thing happen with the eco-responsibility work.)
I don't want to work for a victim; I want to work for a company that responds to, and takes advantage of, the market, regardless of its condition. I want a company that hits bad times, quits complaining, and starts thinking about what it's equivalent of the repo man profession is. I want a company that views a market downturn as a competitive weapon. And I want that company to be Sun.
